NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: Four
He returned back to his training session with his father and the nearly complete recipe in his hands. It explained in detail how to prepare the materials, the exact measurements and then the sequence by which he would introduce the materials but at some point, after the addition of the warm bark, the instructions stopped. There were only three materials that were left; the two he hadn't seen before and a material that was one of the main trading recourse of the clan. It was in a small crucible. Inside was a liquid that once exposed to the air started smoking. Ember alcohol.
He sat down for a few minutes going through the recipe and when he was done he turned to his father. "What does it do?" his first question. "It causes the thoughts of the attacker burn causing them to disappear from their mind. They forget something like dodging or attacking at some point. I have the rank 3 variant which has greater effects. At this point it can only burn one thought which isn't very prevalent in the mind and it is very slowly." Tian Ho answered without placing any thought to it. He then stayed silent and watched like a hawk as Tian Zheng wracked his head trying to come up with a favorable combination of the materials to create this gu.
He sat there for a few hours before he finally found it. "Since the gu has properties of fire and mind, and the materials need to be placed in a specific order then does that mean that balance is required. Do they need to complement each other and finally when I add the final material it needs to complement and fuse every material in the recipe." His thoughts were bare to the world and his hand was already clutching his hair. His mind had been lost in the alchemy of gu refinement as he searched for an elusive balance. He let out a small laugh as he had finally understood the direction. "It isn't about the balance between the materials, that would lead to a gu that constantly battled against itself. No; what I need is a gu worm that is formed by the complementation of the materials not formed due to the balance formed by them. After all balance can always be broken." He seemed to have gotten something enlightening as he could feel it although faintly that something had changed. The feeling was faint and he had missed it for with the new line of thought, he had started to think of the process of gu refinement as not searching for the balance between the materials but as the search for a way the materials would complement each other. "A way for them to enhance their strengths but at the same time making up for their weaknesses."
He reached for the materials weighed them and with unnatural ease for someone who was refining for the first time started following the sequence described by the recipe. When she threw the warm bark inside the bubbling caldron it stilled. The bubbles disappeared but he didn't worry, he slowly poured the Ember alcohol and as it fell in the still liquid mixture it started to form a whirlpool like it had started mixing itself. When he had finally finished pouring the Ember alcohol he had measured by averaging the amount of liquid materials he had added during the refinement, the liquid in caldron shook for a moment and slowly it started levitating slowly but he didn't let it fully float as he added the river coral.
What happened next surprised him for a second as the liquid seemed to be pulled towards the coral which after it had been surrounded by the liquid it burst into flames and reduced the liquid into mist. It didn't disperse as normal mist acted but clung to it even further. After a few seconds of surprise, it wore off and he held the mortal leaf. He was waiting for the moment the forming gu worm would start destabilizing, when the balance was being broken so that he could add it. It would act as the conduit by which the materials would transform balance into complementation. This would change the state from, the materials fighting for dominance and wearing each other out into all of them working together to give birth to something new. Something that would be a representation of their harmony, the fire mind gu worm. 'Just like a killer move.' His mind wandered but was forced back to the show of a candle like flame covered by mist.
He didn't have to wait for long since after ten breaths the balance was broken and the flame started wavering. He held the crushed leaf and when the flame was about to disappear, he sprinkled it into the now erratic mist. When the green pieces of the mortal leaf were touched by the mist, it seemed to be given passage into the core where the nearly dead flame was. The leaves encased the flame in a barrier like construct but whatever happened afterwards wasn't visible to the eager boy. The light of the primeval essence worth four primeval stones he had fed it encased the entire process, like the mysteries of Heaven that weren't visible to a mortal like him. He watched filled with nervousness as the ball of light twisted and changed shape before it went back to being a circle.
As the light was slowly fading he saw a figure inside. Tian Ho also saw it and was confused by the way it looked. He had once possessed a rank 1 fire mind gu. It didn't look like this new gu. This newly refined gu worm was red, like the fire mind gu but instead of the small and random grooves it was supposed to have, this one had a large mark that was a beautiful shade of green that glowed in the light of the sun, while on its eyes were what looked like flames and on its head were two small antennae that were constantly changing due to being made from what looked like a mist.
Tian Ho couldn't believe what he was seeing. The gu that was created from a rank1 recipe and materials gave out a higher rank aura. Even he, a rank 3 upper stage Gu master couldn't recognize the aura. He was nervous about what this meant, what it could mean to the clan and even the world if they realized that a rank 2 Gu master had refined a gu worm that was at least Rank 4 and from a rank 1 recipe. He knew that after this he had to make sure Tian Zheng understand what he had done could be classified as a miracle and could never be told to anyone.
He watched as the expectant and eager boy reached out towards the gu worm. He held it in his arm and started refining it. Like it had found its purpose, the gu worm didn't wait and directly assimilated its will into his marking him as the owner. He held it in the air and watched it with a smile. He had succeeded, in a day he had refined his first gu worm. He looked at his father and saw him with a small smile resting on his lips. Tian Ho shook his head, throwing away the feeling of impending calamity he had felt when the gu worm was being refined. "Now that you have refined a successful gu worm we will move to the next one after you rest." His gaze was still at the strange gu worm. "Try it out. Make sure you are familiar with it." He looked at the child and smiled as he saw him hurriedly feed the gu worm his primeval essence.
They both looked expectantly as the mark glowed red and as the connected mark glowed red. When the circular mark was fully red, something changed. The red primeval essence changed into a deep darkness that was confined to the mark. Confusion appeared on Tian Zheng`s eyes as a sense of dread appeared in Tian Ho`s heart. He could feel that whatever that black mark was made of was dangerous. He was about to pull his son away from the gu worm when their vision was filled with a golden light. another gu worm had appeared. A small worm, with beady eyes and wings behind its back. It appeared before the new gu worm and stood between the worm and Tian Zheng. Golden markings started appearing around the two gu worms but as they got closer to the new gu worm they were turned into a dark shade of black, the same that had filled the circular mark. The Heaven`s Vision gu saw this and with a beat of its wings it transformed into a large snake, enough to fill up Tian Ho`s palm twice over. The golden markings produced changed and started bleeding a deep purple.
This led to a mixture of the two marks creating new marks. However, no matter how greatly they shined their light slowly stopped being produced due to the newly refined gu worm. It stopped looking at Tian Zheng and turned towards the Heaven`s Vision gu. The black marks that surrounded it started clashing with the newly created purple gold marks. They clashed and for a moment there seemed to be a balance between the two but once it was reached and sustained for two breaths the new gu worm shot towards the aperture of its dazed creator. The Heaven`s Vision gu tried to stop it but failed and without any delay, it shot back inside the aperture.
Tian Ho watched with horror as they entered his son`s aperture he was about to rush towards Tian Zheng and try to use his higher cultivation rank to rip them from the aperture but was forced to stop when the few marks that hadn't been destroyed rushed towards him. When he was touched by one of the purple gold marks he fainted instantly. His body seemed to heat up as steam started to escape his body and with the steam blood seeped from his pores.